Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card-type storage device, such as a memory card, and a slot device into which the card-type storage device is inserted, and more particularly to a structure for dissipating heat from the card-type storage device.
Description of the Related Art
A card-type storage device (hereinafter referred to as the card medium), such as a memory card, is widely used as a medium for recording information (such as data) in electronic apparatuses, such as portable devices. In recent years, there has been known such a card medium which is configured to read and write information at high speed. Particularly, in a case where a digital camera as one of the electronic apparatuses performs moving image shooting, as image definition is made higher, the transfer rate of image data has to be increased, that is, it is necessary to perform writing of image data at high-speed.
In general, as the transfer rate of data becomes higher, power consumption in a card medium becomes larger, which increases heat generation. Therefore, heat transfer via electrical contacts and natural convection are not effective enough to exhaust heat from the card medium, which sometimes prevents the apparatus from normally operating due to increased temperature.
On the other hand, there has been proposed a device in which a heat conductive material is provided in a card medium so as to effectively exhaust heat from the card medium (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2011-95961). In Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2011-95961, part of a card case or a slot device (referred to as the card slot), into which a card medium is inserted, is brought into contact with a heat dissipation path extending from the heat conductive material to thereby promote heat dissipation.
Further, there has been proposed a heat transfer connector configured to connect a device having a heat generation source and a device as a heat dissipation destination by a cylindrical protrusion made of metallic material, and arrange a tubular contact, which is elastic and has heat conductive fluid sealed therein, in at least one of the devices (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2000-283620).
However, according to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2011-95961, the card medium and the card slot are connected via a contact. Therefore, although the reliability is ensured provided that the contact has a spring property, the card medium and the card slot are brought into linear contact with each other, which reduces thermal conductivity. On the other hand, if the contact has no spring property, although thermal conductivity is improved, when the card medium is repeatedly inserted and removed, contact between the card medium and the card slot becomes unstable, which lowers the reliability.
In Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2000-283620, although thermal conductivity is improved by surface contact, since the tubular contact having the heat conductive fluid sealed therein is used, the disclosed mechanism of the heat conductive connector is low in reliability for the card medium which is repeatedly inserted and removed.